The productivity of avoidance...

Another day of great progress... unfortunately it wasn't on my highest priority project, the Monsterghan! I have found that on the days I am avoiding something I *really* need to be doing, I manage to accomplish miracles... in other areas!!!

Today's avoidance project was the start of reorganizing my "old stash". By loose definition, I consider most of what was bought prior to our move to fit this category. With the exception of sock yarn, a huge proportion of this yarn was intended for crocheting. While it *is* interchangeable, I typically have different qualities in mind when looking for yarn for a crocheting project than a knitting project.

My large collection of plastic tubs contain the majority of my vast expanse of stash. Many of these have been sorted through to a certain extent, and some had even been labelled over the last 10+ years. I've gone through binges where I've sorted, frogged, washed, reskeined, rewound yarns but never a concerted effort to catalogue everything like today's.

I separated yarns by brand name, then colour, then dye lot. Each yarn was entered into my Ravelry stash database, including the name of the specific bin it was going to be stored in. It worked out to over 150 separate yarn entries added today, with anywhere from 0.5 skeins to 22 skeins per entry. A few of these needed to be rewound, but not as many as I had to do in previous "stash dives".

It was eye-opening to have to handle each ball of yarn. I *know* I have an obnoxiously huge stash, but there is something to be said for having to touch, look at, and account for each and every skein. On the plus side, I have a better knowledge of what I already have. I know from my Ravelry library listings, that I can shop better and use it to my advantage when searching Rav. Since many of these bins will be stored somewhere other than the easy access of my craft room, the additional step of listing the bin names will allow me to search Ravelry for where my yarn is before I start tearing apart piles of bins all over!

This small start in getting my stash properly catalogued took over 10 hours today with my phone. Many more hours will be spent on this task, especially until I get my craft room in complete order. However, I know from previous experience that this time has been an investment in the future, and that investment will eventually pay off in saved time, as well as money.

Nicole =o)

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